Summer films to suit all tastes

Sci-fi, childrens’ animations, musicals and laugh out loud comedy are all on the cinema menu over the summer holiday period – and the full line-up until early September has just gone on sale.

Summer is a great time for a family outing and is the most important time for releases of children’s films.

This year the biggest box office hit is expected to be the second of the How to Train Your Dragon series, based on Cressida Cowell’s best-selling books – another great dragon ride is promised.

Other family films include the screen debut of Britain’s Got Talent winner Pudsey the Dog! Voiced by David Walliams and surrounded by some well-known British stars this adventure sounds like fun.

Greendale’s finest, Postman Pat, also receives the big-screen treatment and other titles which should keep younger children entertained include The Nut Job and Planes 2.

For those who enjoy a bit of SFX spectacle as part of their movie-going watch out for three blockbusters with 3D options.

Transformers: Age of Extinction has Mark Wahlberg taking on the leading role in a superior sequel, while Angelina Jolie is in fine form as Sleeping Beauty’s powerful godmother in Maleficent. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is the third of these and features some truly spectacular battle scenes.

Unusually there are also two musicals in the summer line-up – Clint Eastwood’s gritty version of The Jersey Boys, set in 1960s America, and some summer holiday escapism in the form of Walking on Sunshine – a romcom set in coastal Italy and featuring a ton of singalong 1980s hits.

But the film we have received most enquiries about so far? That’s got to be for the arrival of the irrepressible Mrs Brown (Brendan O’Carroll), as she leaps in all her glory from TV to big screen. Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie in August, along with the second Inbetweeners film, due in early September, look like becoming two massive British summer hits.